In 1985 my interest in Mexican Republic Hand on Book 8 Escudos escalated to a fever pitch when I discovered that the fabled Norweb Collection of Mexican Coins was to be sold in Dallas Texas. I found out about the actual sale from an article in the hobby section of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, my local newspaper. Either the newspaper inserted the wrong date, or in my excitement I read it wrong; I showed up at location of the sale one week and four hours before it was to begin.
When the auction finally happened I did well; I purchased almost all of Mrs. Norweb’s Guanajuato 8 Escudos, plus many other fine Mexican pieces. I was a happy camper, but I learned a good lesson. The price estimates made by Christie’s were worthless and so were the values in my Mexican Coin Bible, The Buttrey Hubbard Guide Book. This came as a great shock to an amateur collector like me. What to do, oh what to do?
I immediately started trying to find other books on Mexican Numismatics; the year was 1986 PC (the days before Personal Computers) or the Internet so it was formable task. I happened to stumble across Mike Dunigan at the ANA Winter Show at the Infomart in Dallas and I tried to talk to him at the show, but he was way too busy to spend any time with a peon like me. Another coin dealer at the this show with a number of Mexican Coins was Don Higgins and I bought several nice Cap & Ray 8 Reales and one Hand on Book 8 Escudo from him. I asked Don about Mexican Numismatic books and he gave me a short list, and believe me it was very short at the time.
By the time the 1986 Austin Texas Coin Show rolled around all of the major Mexican coin dealers understood there was a new fish in the pond. I finally talked Dunigan into spending a little time with me and I made a substantial purchase from him at the show of Guanajuato and Durango Cap & Ray 8 Reales; he had no Republican 8 Escudos with him.
During the next couple of months I wasted many hours searching for Mexican Numismatic books. Rod Bates sold me a nice selection of auction catalogs and a couple of duplicate books from his library on a visit to Port Isabel. Later he found me Volume III of Dr. Pradeau’s series, but it won’t be until the Brownsville Wild Cat Show before I met JD Underhill. Underhill was the first person to mention the Calico book about 8 Escudos. However, he didn’t have an extra copy. When I returned home I picked up the phone and called Mike Dunigan in Abilene Texas.
Mike said he had sold all of the copies he had, but would order some more. He also asked if I was willing to pay $45 for a book? I told him yes, if it was a good book. He informed it was the best book available.
About a month later I received it. I was overwhelmed! That copy is still in my library and I have used it so much it is falling a part. The Onza Main Book became my new bible for 8 Escudos.
There are a few other books about 8 Escudos, but none equal the this book. Even this great work has errors and omissions and it has little data, really no data, about grade rarity. But it provided me with a working list of Mexican Republic 8 Escudos that was my base list for years.
It interesting to note there are 8 Escudos listed in this book that many believed didn’t exist until the great Sotheby’s Latin Gold Hoard was sold. The photographs in the book are poor, at best, but I firmly believe several of the coins pictured in this book were sold in the Sotheby’s Geneva Sale. However, I can’t prove this because the photos in this auction catalog are even worse than those in The Onza Main Book. These listings and poor photographs have led to my theory that the Calicos saw at least part of this hoard on a trip to Colombia before they published their book.
For years this was absolutely the very best reference book for all Latin American 8 Escudos.
In 2004 Xavier Calico updated the older work with a new book almost twice as large as the older edition. The new book is simply called La Onza and is a must have for serous collectors of Latin American 8 Escudos. Don’t get me wrong this edition has a few errors and omissions too, but it is much more accurate than the earlier work.
Both books use the old, or European way to list individual values; with only a single value listed for each coin. And these values are unrealistic for the Mexican Republican 8 Escudos. Also gone in the new book are the fuzzy color pictures used earlier to be replaced with black and white photos. Some photos are still not of the highest quality, but at least you can see more detail now. There are still a few photographs of old rubbings, some of even rather common coins, which should have been replaced. On the whole La Onza is much better than its predecessor and I rate it a solid 9 on a scale of 10 to 1.
I pride myself on my personal research library about Mexico. I have well over a hundred books about Mexican history; unrelated to numismatics on the whole. Many other books in my library relate to numismatics, most about Mexican coins while others cover US and World Coins. I find both of the Calico books a necessity for a complete library, so I highly recommend both. By the way The Onza Main Book is in both Spanish and English while La Onza is all in Spanish.
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